La Paz and the Islands

Where to start to tell you about all the great things we have seen and done. Right now we are on a 14 plus day trip on the Sea of Cortez out of La Paz. La Paz is small city about 1/3 of the way up the inside of that long Baja peninsula that extends down from San Diego.
La Paz is a pretty town with the main street being a long walk way along the ocean called the Malecon. People walk there all the time. There are also those who jog. They have a small area that has exercise machines setup for anyone who walks by to use. They are all human propelled, no electricity required .When the tide is high and the wind is blowing you can get plenty wet from the waves. The side opposite from the ocean is lined with small shops and lots of restaurants. The bigger stores and the more hustle and bustle of the town happens a few blocks inland from the Malecon. Most of the streets are one way which makes it great for bicycles as the streets are wide and you don’t feel crowded.
There are two major Mercados in town which are covered buildings with lots of little shops inside, mostly places that sell fruits and vegetables and stalls that sell fish or meat. They also have “ the organic market’ every Tuesday and Saturday which has nice vegetables and lots of good baked goods. Nearby is a street vendor who sells pork tacos. Oh they are good. You have to be sure not to go too late as he just works until he sells out usually between noon and 2 . About a week ago Alex , a friend of ours from Full Glass and I met in town. I was looking for items to fulfill a Christmas wish list from a poor child in a very small village about 1.5 hours from here. (The rotary club collects Christmas wish letters from these kids who have to stay at a boarding school during the week as the live too far away, so they only go home on the weekends. They also have very limited resources. ) We had lots of fun going in various stores and trying to explain what I needed. Even getting Christmas paper was a challenge as they just sell it in individual sheets, no big rolls. Of course though, will we were shopping I got hungry ( this was before the pork tacos) and so we stopped at a busy looking street vendor who sold fish tacos with all sorts of condiments to go with them, mmmm good.
So as I started to tell you about our latest trip. We left La Paz in the company of Julie and John on Mya who hail from Long Beach, CA. We went to Lobos, small cove just south of La Paz.

mountains behind Lobos

It was beautiful with clear blue water that turned that lovely ocean green color as the water became more shallow. After a night there went to Isla Espiritu Santo. There are lots of anchorages and we chose La Raza.

Myla in La Raza cove

Myla in Raza cove

La Raza Cove from the land

The snorkeling and kayaking were great. There were several Baja Ha Ha boats there with us, Myla ( Julie and John), Anakena (Bill and Debbie), “C’est Si Bon ( Perry and Patty) and Volare (Jason and Vicki). We all went on a hike together (except C’est Si Bon as they had already done a four hour kayak trip.!)
Next stop was Partida and met with all of the above except Volare who had to leave and added Ahelani ( Steve and Patricia).

Pardita Cove party

Pardita cove party

Candeleros Bay from shore

 Our Kayaks at Candeleros

After that we all had different plans and went off on our own ways. We stopped again in La Raza and had the whole cove to ourselves ( that made clothing optional!!!). The next day we went back up to Los Canderlaros and then off up the coast to Isla San Francisco.

Isla San Francisco

The ridge at Isla San Francisco

We were able to hike there too and Hartley took some pictures of the bay. We met up with Bill and Debbie again and enjoyed great cocktails at sunset.
We then headed up the coast. We keep looking for whales but haven’t seen any yet. We did see quite a few dolphins, no tricks though, they seemed very relaxed. I finally saw some flying bat rays, cool. The sunset in San Telmo was incredible .

Sunset at Punta Telmo

Sunset at Punta Telmo

Fire in the sky at Punta Telmo

To top it off the water had bioluminescent dinoflagellates and after sunset , the water sparkled as the fish swam around .
So we haven’t seen any real civilization for over a week now. I was in the mood for some food other than what we cook ourselves, so we went in search of a restaurant. We stopped in Agua Verde and looked ashore. The guide book said it had two little stores but no restaurants and that seemed true. We only could see about 5 small houses from the boat. We decided to keep going. Along the way we saw a boat that we knew, Kiwi III captained by Patty who was sailing with her friend Bob. We both decided to go into Candeleros Bay ( a different one from above). Pretty little bay with a great big new resort just off the beach.

CandelerosBay

Perfect for the restaurant food I wanted. Patty was having some trouble with her engine so she sailed into the bay and did a beautiful job anchoring under sail. I then swam over to their boat to see if she needed any help with anything and just to say hi. I could of just called on the radio but it was hot and nice swim seemed in order. We exchanged pictures that we had taken of each other as we sailed by and Patty had her engine problem figured out. Hartley and I stayed on board to see the sunset and then kayaked over (dress and all) to the resort where we had a lovely dinner. It was relatively expensive by Mexican standards, 85 pesos for a margarita, 105 for a glass of red wine and 59 pesos for a beer! In La Paz we can get beer for 30 and under and often at happy hour you can get a beer for 15 pesos. (There are about 16 pesos to the dollar).

Sunset at Marina Palmira in La Paz

Well the big boat rally started10/25/2015. Everyone that could of the 137 boats with varying number of crews from 2 to 13 were to meet in the parking lot of West Marine in San Diego for the big kick off. Since Halloween was near we were supposed to dress in costume. Thanks to creative help from Jacque we managed to dress as Minions. This at least seemed to make the kids happy and kept us in their minds so they recognized us in Turtle Bay when they came around Trick or Treating.

Just to remind you of the Minions

The morning of 10/26 was the big boating extravaganza. At about 10 am all the boats with their crews pulled out into San Diego and milled around waiting for the official beginning at 11am. It was very impressive and crazy as over a hundred boats tacked and wiggled avoid in each other, waiting for the official start of 11AM. Bang went the start gun and we all were slowly off as the wind was barely there ( typical San Diego weather). Two fireboats were out spraying their water in honor of our event.

The fireboats spraying to wish the approximately 120 BaHa boats farewell

We all sailed up close to the Dolphin, the official San Diego send off boat complete with mayor, or so they said and tried to get our picture in the morning news. We wore our costumes again. Did anyone see us on TV ?

The Committee boat at the beginning

Neil Minion at the start

The boats passing Point Loma, the official end of San Diego

The Start

Spinnakers up

Patricia Bell leaving San Diego

The first leg of the was 3 days (and two nights). It was Neil’s first experience on a big sailboat. He did okay and was great crew. We had not sailed with our spinnaker except for the one time with the sailmaker so having Neil aboard really helped.  We arrived in Bahia Tortuga (Turtle Bay). There was a small town there where we wondered around and a nice little restaurant fed us wonderful Mexican food. We also played a great game of baseball where everyone got a hit and there were very few outs!

The baseball game in Turtle Bay

The baseball fans

We had tried to fish on the way down (Neil) but no success. He did manage to hook a really big tuna but it did not stay on the line long. While in Tortuga we were able to buy more lures. I will save you the anticipation, no we did not catch any fish. Lots of other boats did and we were very jealous.

Profligate and Scout in front of Turtle Bay

The first day everyone was on their own and the second we had a big party on the beach. Lots of dancing and good food. We left on Halloween, so the night before all the boats with kids came around Trick or Treating in their dinghy’s. We dressed up in our costumes to greet them.

Neil and I on the last leg of the Ba Ha

Panga’s took lots of people to shore thus avoiding tipping in their own dinghy in the waves

After two days rest we were on the move again. The wind was good and we sailed quite a bit. The seas were a little lumpy at times but we weathered it well. We arrived in Bahia Santa Maria after dark. It was quite exciting gliding into the anchorage in the pitch dark, avoiding the other boats. We anchored fairly far out so we would avoid the other boats already there. In the morning we awoke to find ourselves surrounded by boats as the those who arrived later than us were all around. 

Dawn in Bahia Santa Maria

Neil and I took the kayaks and went to shore. The waves were big but we managed to get ashore without tipping. My kayak though filled with water as a big wave broke over the top. After emptying out the water from our kayaks, we paddled into the lagoon. It was quiet water. We were able to go up the lagoon and where the natives lived. Not an easy life with no water or electricity. We went down one of the narrow mangrove openings, kind of eerie as we heard all sort of animals crashing around in the mangroves but could not see a thing. We wondered what they were.

The next day we again had a big party on the beach. Before that Neil and I headed in on the kayaks again to do some exploring. It is best to be careful when two Johnstones get together. We are into adventure. We decided to climb the mountain. It was barren desert. No trees, there were a few bushes but that was about it for plants. The ground was old volcanic. Very prickly rocks and most of them not well attached to each other. We tried to find a trail but couldn’t so we just went straight up. (That tells you a lot , no trails means it probably was not a good way to go. )We got to the top and then had to figure the way down. We found a gully and jumped and scrabbled down. It made the dancing and the beer all the better once we got to the party on the beach. Each party got more exciting as people relaxed and more and more danced and had fun. As things were winding down Neil and I left to go to an area where some people had told us they had good shells. We found a few and headed back out to the boat. We both got swamped. We lost the paddles and Neil’s glasses. Eventually, after much hunting we found the paddles but not the glasses. 🙁

The final leg was a one night and two day sail .

Sunset on the last night at sea

The wind was piping hot and the sea rolly so it made for an exciting time.

The end of the Ba Ha peninsula

Another view of the end

The official stopping point was Cabo San Lucas. They are still suffering from the after effects of Hurricane Odile last year and so slips were very limited. They kind of piled boats into spaces between pilings with no docks. We decided that did not sound great so went about 15 miles further up to San Jose Del Cabo and stayed at a beautiful marina. We rented a car and drove to Cabo on Friday and Saturday for the final two parties (couldn’t miss them).

Hartley and Neil at the party

All 3 of us, not the best picture but adds to the flavor

BAHAHAHA tattoo (Just a temp but lots of fun

Neil left to go back to the real world Saturday morning. We on the other hand continue to bask in the sun and enjoy the company of the many people we met on the Ha Ha. Lots of the boats from Cabo  San Lucas have moved up here to San Jose Del Cabo. There is a weather front moving in on Tuesday night so it is either leave now or wait here for a few days. No rush for us so we will wait with lots of our new friends for better weather and then head toward La Paz with a few stops along the way.

Well almost ready to leave for Mexico. We have had our watermaker installed and know how to work it! Hartley redid the seals on the freezer and refrigerator, between that and having the coolant recharged they seem to be working better. Good thing because I have stuffed them with food. We should not starve.
I was able to do all this great shopping as Susan and David, the parents of my former partner in Phoenix let us use their truck for several days. I addition they had us to their lovely house twice and fed as like we would never see civilization again. Susan is a great cook and I couldn’t resist eating all her goodies. They are new friends but already I know we will miss them.

My good friend Jacque drove all the way out to San Diego to bring us some of the stuff I bought in Phoenix when I was there (like a new set of flatware 🙂  )It was good to get to spend some time with her before we leave. Will miss her a lot. She and I ran around buying material to make a wind scoop, of course I haven’t done it yet. Will let you know how it comes out. We also got the things I need to make the Halloween costumes for the crew and got a good start on making them. (See below)

Other things we’ve done are put wheels on the dinghy so it will make it easier to tow up on the beach.

Dinghy wheels (in the up position)

We put kayak racks on the side of the boat to get the kayaks off the deck.

kayak rack

We also developed a new way to get the dinghy on and off the boat without me having to help Hartley turn it over. Before I was “helping” to turn it over but it was at an awkward angle and very heavy so I wasn’t much help. The dinghy always ended leaning on the lifelines and I worried about the stress that caused them. It is really a piece of cake now.

My brother Neil putting the dinghy on the boat

We also got D/C fans and put them all over the boat. I think we will need them as we don’t have air conditioning.

We have been to seminars almost every night this week learning about  all sorts of stuff. We learned how to repair our sail if it rips . They have this new stuff called Sail Doctor , works like magic. It is an epoxy that glues your sails back together and is a permanent fix! It only takes 20 minutes to cure and can be used when things are wet. Wow , hope we never have to use it. Also learned what to do for emergency rigging repair and great places to visit in Mexico.

Oh I figured out what to do for the problem that women’s clothes don’t have any decent pockets, I bought a runners belt and it works great.

We got a new mattress for the boat and it has solved my back problem but it was a little too firm for both of our shoulders. We went to Costco and bought one of their gel toppers and put it on top. It made it too soft for me and made my back hurt again. I then changed the whole order of things. Left the big piece of latex on the bottom , put the gel topper in the middle and then the thinner, softer latex(but firmer than the gel )  on top. It seems to be working!!! I feel like the Princess and the Pea. ( Always good to feel like a Princess.)

The princess mattress

My brother Neil came yesterday all the way from Connecticut to help us sail our boat to Mexico. The rally, the BaHa Ha Ha starts tomorrow and we are ready to go. The kick off party was today complete with Halloween costumes.

The Minions of the boat Atsa  Hartley, Lesley and Neil

So off we go, will update when I can , probably not for a couple of weeks. See you then.

The So Cal Ta Ta is a boat rally that goes from Santa Barbara, out to the Channel Islands , back to the mainland and then back to another of the Channel Islands, Catalina. There were about 40 boats that did the trip. The way it works is everyone gets together and leaves for the next destination at about the same time. Then we arrive at the destination and either everyone gets together or smaller groups meet up. It is not a race, but….as it is well known , any two sailboats going in the same direction..it’s a race.

Two boats going in the same direction in the So Cal TaTa

We spent 3 nights in Santa Barbara. The official beginning was a barbeque party on the beach given by the Santa Barbara Yacht Club where everyone started to get to know each other.

We then sailed to Santa Cruz Island, one of the Channel Islands, and stayed in Smugglers Bay.

Rainbow in Smuggler’s Bay

The island is uninhabited. A great place to explore but it was very hot while we were there so we kayaked around hoping to stay a little cooler. We stayed there two nights. The very large catamaran, “Profligate” owned by the Grand Poobah,and editor of Latitudes 38 ,  and organizer of the Ta Ta and the Ha Ha ,had all of the participants visit his boat in groups of one third of the fleet , each night for three different nights for appetizers and drinks. Met some nice people.

Profligate

Then we all sailed back to Channel Islands Harbor, which despite its name is not in the Channel Islands but on the mainland. We had another great party there put on by the marina. The theme of the week was Rasta/Reggae and most tried to dress appropriately. I made long “hair extensions”made  of braided twine and wrapped n places with embroidery thread and decorated with beads. Hartley was a good sport and wore his head band with my dreads attached.

My Dreads

Hartley and I with homemde dreads

Friendship anklet

The next step of the trip was to Paradise Cove, another harbor on the mainland . Quick stop overnight and then back to the Channel Islands. This time we went to Catalina Island and stayed at Two Harbors. Two Harbors actually has a little store and a restaurant. It is one of the places that the ferries come from the mainland and drop off all the day trippers and campers. This was the first place we stopped that we actually had to deal with civilization. We managed to hike a little, and use the kayaks again.  Spent two nights there with the group. The first night, Interlude, a 73 foot sail boat, invited everyone to come and visit their boat and and of course the final night we had a big pot luck celebration.

The potluck at Two Harbors

More in Two Harbors

One more with most of the group in Two Harbors on Catalina Island

We decided to stay a little longer. The Rally was officially over Saturday night September 20 but we stayed on until the morning of the 23 when we sailed up to Emerald Cove , just a few miles away. The water this year is unusually warm and very clear. We picked up a mooring ball in Emerald Cove just off  of Indian Rock.  There was only one other boat in the whole cove, an advantage to being there after Labor Day. The water was 72 degrees ,nice for snorkeling . We saw lots of beautiful fish. I even saw a sea slug and an octopus.

Snorkeling in Emerald Cove

We then headed back to the mainland stopping in Alamitos Bay . They are in the mist of redoing the marina and it was in pretty bad shape. We were on an end tie and I heard a thud while I was down below. I went up and looked over the side of the boat that was on the water side, thinking maybe a log had hit the boat, but nothing there. I then looked at the side of the boat closest to the dock and there, on the dock was an enormous sea lion. He seemed quite content to stay on the dock, making no move to get on the boat, good thing. In the morning he was still there. We couldn’t go anywhere until we got him to move as he was laying on the lines that tied our boat to the dock. We had to spray him with water as yelling and other noises had no effect. Sorry no pictures they have disappeared!!

We had a nice sail down to Mission Bay where we spent the night at anchor. I was disappointed as this was a place we often went with the kids and watched the fireworks from Sea World night.  Apparently that must have been in the summertime, because as soon is is past Labor Day they close at 6 pm and no fireworks.  Oh well.

The next day we did a short sail to San Diego . We hadn’t been there in a long time .  It was amazing to see all the huge beds of kelp off the coast. We stayed for a week in the old marina that we had stayed at for the first 12 years of our sailing experience, Sun Harbor Marina. It is very nice , on Point Loma, close to stores etc, but the slips are very narrow (about 12 inches between our boat and the next) and the fairways are narrow too, making it difficult to back out your boat. We felt it would keep us from sailing as getting in and out was so hard and decided to go to Marina Cortez on Harbor Island. Further to ride our bikes to the store but much easier slips to deal with.

September 29 is Hartley’s birthday and also happens to be the day after Cabrillo officially discovered San Diego Bay. When our boat was in San Diego we always went to the Cabrillo day celebrations to help celebrate Hartley’s birthday. We managed to do that again this year and watched as the little dinghy left the mother ship and rowed to the land where Cabrillo and his crew leaped  off their boat and planted the Spanish flag.

Cabrillo preparing to leap

The planting of the flag claiming San Diego (and the rest of the west coast ) for Spain.

We had a really nice day on October 3 , sailing with Dr Jill Gibson’s mother, father , sister, brother-in-law and two kids. Jill’s Mom and Dad did a lot of sailing when their kids were younger, her Dad even sailed to Hawaii. Nice to share the day with people who are so nice. The next day it rained some and the following  day it poured,  of course just as we were ready to go to the airport and we got sopping wet. Now this is where I get to say I was in Phoenix for a week and did not get to visit many people. We spent most of our time going from one doctor’s appointment to another, nothing wrong, just trying to get all the maintenance stuff done before we leave the country . For the majority of you who I didn’t see , I wish I had had more time, will have to plan better next time.

Just got back to San Diego and checked out the boat. We had a watermaker installed while we were gone. Looks good but there are no papers on how to work it etc so I hope they plan to come back in the next few days and give us a lesson!

We will spend the rest of our time in San Diego getting ready for the big event, the BAHA HA HA. Totally looking forward to it but lots to do before then.

And finally some pictures of our boat, Atsa under sail. We have to rely on other people to take our picture and we got some good ones.

Atsa

Atsa again

and Atsa once more

We have had a few adventures since I last posted, mostly involving beautiful encounters with mammals. A

After visiting the San Juan Islands we set off down the west coast. We went straight from Port Townsend to Crescent City where we stayed for a few days so we could meet up with our good friends Bud and Penny. They were working as camp hosts in Oregon and were able to drive down and visit on their day off.

Going out the Golden Gate

Leaving San Francisco

Me documenting the final look AT San Francisco

The Bridge

The  next big jump was from Crescent City to San Francisco. We were able to stay in our old slip and see our old slip neighbors Bev and Rob.  Bev kindly dragged us around to get shopping down so we were all provisioned up. Will miss those friends, hope we manage to meet up again some time but are keeping in contact via messaging.

We decided to harbor hop on the way down the coast, 1st stop Santa Cruz and then the next day Monterey. As we left Monterey we had the great fun of seeing a huge group of dolphins, more than 20 at  time. A lot of them came and played at the bow of the boat for a long time while others just came by to check us out  It was some much fun, it was like someone had sent out  signal “calling all dolphins” as you could see groups of dolphins coming to the boat from all directions. While they are approaching they jump out of the water I suppose so they can check which direction they are going, an unbelievable site.

Dolphin jumping

From Monterey we went to San Simeon, where  the Hearst Castle is located. Getting a shore there is difficult with breaking waves and we had visited before so decided to let that go this time. In the morning we headed for San Luis. A very still day with glassy seas. All of a sudden Hartley noted a change in the appearance of the water ahead and immediately slowed the boat down. It was a sleeping whale. It was laying mostly just below the water with just its bow hole coming up everyone once in  a while to breath. We were really close. I don’t think he woke up, thank goodness , just slowly glided off to the side and then behind the boat. I assure you whales are vey big and I am very glad we did not hit it.

From San Luis we headed out to San Miguel, one of the Channel Islands. Off Point Arguello we met a whale who I think thought we needed some entertainment. He was about a quarter mile a way and started to jump straight out of the water.  Usually you never get a picture of this as your camera isn’t ready . This whale must be very human knowledgeable as he did it at least five times so we could get a good picture.

Jumping

Big jump

We spent a night in Cuyler’s Harbor on San Miguel and then the next night on Santa Cruz island at Prisoner’s Harbor.  The islands are beautiful and quiet. We then let that serenity to go to Santa Barbara, a bustling little  harbor with lots of boats and lots of tourists. Here we will start our first boat rally. Fifty boats will be in the So Cal Ta Ta . This will start with a party on 9/13 and leave on 9/14. Should be fun to be in the company of so many sailors.

First week in the San Juans

Fort Townsend to Poulsbo and then to Sucia Island

Second week in the San Juans

Fish Soup in the San Juans

Some random thoughts and info as we glide through the San Juan Islands
I made fish soup yesterday! Those of you who don’t now much about my home life don’t realize how much of an accomplishment that is for me. I used to cook but for at least the last 20 years Hartley has done the honors. It is interesting starting to get back into it. By the way the fish soup made was with tuna that we bought from one of the local fisherman  and was excellent.
Just now Hartley has been annoyed by the little gnats flying around and a few landed in his wine as we sit at anchor in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. That was okay by me until he mentioned he could see at least three in mine, oh well , more protein.

Pretty boat in Deer Harbor

The other night we were in Echo Bay , a repeat.  Last time we were there I hiked to the East and visited Shallow Bay and Fossil Bay. This time I went the other way and went to Ewing Bay which is more remote and the trail is a little rougher. Saw three snakes a long the way, just garter snakes, but nevertheless they always make me jump.
The areas that have real hiking trails are limited as most of the land is privately owned. It was nice on Sucia Island that most of the land is state park and so you can hike on real trails instead of needing to hike along county roads.

Another shot in Echo Harbor the BLUE MOON on July 31

A couple  of days ago we were in Hunter Bay on Lopez Island. The guide book says there are no facilities available at that anchorage, but I noted that only a couple of miles away , which was on the other side of the island, there was a grocery store!! That was the day I decided to make fish soup and had to hike over there to get the necessary ingredients. Like I said there were no hiking trails but I walked along the roads with limited traffic. I did get to wave to lots of people though as the tradition on Lopez Island is that everyone, walkers and cars all wave to each other. Just as an aside there were thousands of “baby flies” (baby makes the sound cute , but they were not) at Hunter Bay. They landed on the boat and died as well as what seemed like millions of dead ones in the water.  I tried to look it up on the Internet but found nothing. Anyone know about this phenomenon?
We had a neat experience in Echo Harbor the other  night, just as the sun was setting (which is about 9 pm this far north), the person two boats over played Taps on his trumpet. That was very nice, but then he followed it by playing “Summertime”. He played beautifully. What great ending to a great day.

Today we sailed from Echo Bay on Sucia to Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. We got to sail for a change. The winds here in the islands tend to be light and infrequent but as we pulled  away this time  the wind was up , so up went the sails. The current, which was strong, was going our way, so with the wind and the current we were screaming through the water at 10 knots!

10 knots under sail (with a little help from the current) Also note the depth sounder 387 feet. The bottom is way down there!

Hartley working hard on the winch as we sail at 10 knots

The water was dancing as the currents are wild in this area as the waters funnel through the various islands. We swung back and forth as the whirlpools pulled the boat one way and then the other. Lots of fun.
After we arrived in Deer Harbor I went for a walk to see the sights. There is an old dance hall that has been there for years. Too bad no dance tonight.

A float plane painted  like an Orca whale landing at Deer Harbor

To go back a little we also went to Canada this time out. We left Port Townsend visited the islands and then went to Vancouver Island and stayed in Sidney Harbor which is right next to Victoria. We got to visit with my Uncle Angus, my mom’s brother and my cousins. I haven’t seen them in years , it was great.

The Canadian family

The marina in Sidney was swank! All the posts between slips had two hanging planters. The boats in the harbor were incredible too. All big and in great shape.

Sidney Harbor

Another view of Sidney Harbor

After Sidney we worked our way back to Port Townsend where we once again met Rhonda who had kindly received our mail and packages. We stocked up there on food and enjoyed Rhonda’s hospitality before we left again for the Islands.

Rhonda and Lesley at Port Townsend in the sunset after a nice steak dinner on the boat

We also visited with Hartley’s relatives that live in the Seattle area.  They came to see us in Poulsbo Harbor. We were able to see his Aunt Barbara and his cousins. We really enjoyed it.

Hartley, Aunt Babara and cousin Ann

We also went through Deception pass which is between Whitbey Island and Fidalgo Island. The passage is narrow and the water fast even at nearly “slack ” current. I steered and Hartley took pictures.

Deception pass

Deception Pass

Deception Pass

Deception Pass

As we travel through the islands one of the tasks is to watch for drifting logs Here is a “castle”some kids made which we saw  on the shore as we floated along.

Log “castle”

One last picture this time. It is of Mount Baker which is almost always seen sitting beautifully in the background.

Mount Baker almost always in the background

PS I figured out what I was doing wrong when I moved my pictures to the blog so they should be clearer now:)

Didn’t I say I wanted to go somewhere warm then why am I heading NORTH??
We decided to give the north a whirl and left the morning of July 10th. Our first stop after a full day of travel was Bodega Bay. We had an auspicious start as we saw 6 humpback whales. No matter how often you see whales it is always thrilling.

View of the harbor in Bodega Bay from up on the hill

We left the next day and decided to do our first long stretch leaving 7/11 in the morning and arriving in Crescent City California about 9:30 at night on 7/12.
We saw lots of whales and porpoises too!
Crescent City is almost to the Oregon border in California. It is in red wood country. We ended spending almost a week there waiting for the weather to be good to travel north so we got to explore the area. We took a bus about 20 minutes out of town and were able to enjoy the giant red woods in a famous area called Stout Grove. As any of you know who have seen the redwoods they are so impressive.

In Stout Grove in the redwoods in Jedediah Smith State Park , California

Foot Bridge over the beautiful clear water in the redwoods

They go up forever

See how little I am or how big they are

again

One of the other major sites in Crescent City is their light house. It sits on a piece of land that is an island about 20 hours a day. During the low tides you can walk out to it and sometimes get to take a tour of the house. It has been continuously lived in since it went into service in 1856. It still serves as a light house but volunteers live there a month at a time.

The lighthouse on the island in Crescent City

And a close up of the lighthouse

Life is fortuitous at times. We were going to leave Saturday but the weather was going to be even better on Sunday so we decided to stay one more night. We went out to dinner and were waiting for our turn ( a very popular place so we expected a longish wait) Good thing we had to wait as what should happen? I got a call from Dr Gibson !! She and her husband were taking a trip out of San Francisco and had just pulled into town. We were able to get together and have dinner. Such a treat to see some one you know when you are so far away.

Dr Gibson and i

We had a great time reminiscing about Phoenix and OB -Gyn stuff.
After a week we were ready to move on and so left for however far we could get. We were making good time so we kept going for another day and a half until we got to Astoria, on the Columbia River which divides Oregon from Washington .

The bridge at Astoria over the Columbia River

The Columbia River entrance is called the Columbia River Bar and when the weather is bad the meeting of the in going tide and waves with the out going river causes huge breaking waves. Even with great weather it was easy to see why this is such a dangerous place. The Coast Guard does their heavy weather rescue training there. Astoria is a town of about 10,000 people. It’s industry is tourism and fishing. The port is busy with lots of fishing boats. The river is amazing to watch as the shipping channel is very near the shore and you see these huge boats going by and they look almost close enough to touch.

See how close they are

After a couple of days in Astoria and several rides on their restored trolley that travels the length of town, we left for the Strait of San Juan de Fuca.

Hartley at sunset in the Strait of San juan de Fuca

We did another over night trip and got into Port Townsend just before midnight on 7/25. Port Townsend is a quaint little town. It is a tourist town that has other things to do so the stores etc are for real people not just tourists.
Rhonda, one of my friends and former patients lives in Fort Townsend so she took us around to see the sites. It is always great to have some who knows the area and can show you all the things you wouldn’t know to look at. Also, I was impressed that Rhonda must know people who travel on boats, the first two things she asked were do you need to use my car to get supplies and do you want to come to my house to do laundry!!
We did an easy 5 hour trip and are in the the true San Juan Islands. The area is gorgeous. There are islands and islands and islands. Because of all the land and the narrow passages between them the currents are fast and turbulent. We were traveling a 6 knots and all of a sudden a current picked us up and we were going 9.5 knots. We hit a whirl pool that pulled the boat left and then right and there was nothing we could do about it.
We stayed in Fisherman Bay near the town of Lopez. I was able to paddle my kayak into town about a mile a way and get some great ice cream .After two days in Fisherman Bay we moved on to Sucia Island. The scenery is incredible with Mont Baker looming over the horizon.

Sucia Island with Mont Baker in the background

Kayaking at Sucia Island

Almost full moon on Sucia Island

Another view

Time to go .

I don’t know if I should do this chronologically or just dive in where I feel like it. I will try chronologically.

Well after I got back from  Scotland,Hartley and I decided to take a trip out side the confines of San Francisco Bay. The Bay is great to sail with challenging winds but is pretty flat, no ocean swells and we wanted to try the swells out again. At the end of May we went up to Drake’s Bay which is  on the south side of Point Reyes. Beautiful country but a big cold looking spot with lots of fog.

Drakes Bay

After spending the night we went further north to Tomales Bay, a little bit of  a navigating  challenge as it is a long narrow bay with lots of twists and turns and shallow spots. Kissed the bottom twice (soft forgiving sand) and otherwise had no problems. The area is great for kayaking, we saw several groups of kayakers camping on the shores. We  left the next day and reversed our track spending one more night in Drake’s Bay where it was even windier and bleaker looking than the first time. The next day we went under the Golden Gate bridge and were greeted by the SUN!

We had a visit from a new relative, well he has always been a relative but we just found out about each other. When I was is Scotland I met a relative of my Dad’s and he had a son who was getting married and traveling to the States for his honeymoon. Stefan and Ashley spent a day sailing with us on the Bay.

Hartley then went back to see his Dad in New Hampshire  (JB is 93 and doing great.)

JB at Odiorne Point on New Hampshire

JB out for a hike!

and I stayed and worked a little on cleaning the boat and organizing cupboards etc. I was the time of the national championships for basketball. Not usually a big interest of mine but the teams were the Oakland Warriors (from here!) and the Cleveland Cavaliers. My boat neighbor, Bev is a Cavaliers fan and has TV!! So we spent some evenings watching and having great fun. We had planned to go to a chamber music concert at the Cafe Trieste in Berkeley but there was a game that night and I wasn’t sure Bev would go.(She is a much bigger basketball fan than me. ) In the end we went to the chamber music. I have talked about this interesting venue in the past. Well when we got there they had the basketball game on their big screen TV on mute. We got to watch the game and listen to the music all at the same time. It was really funny, towards the end when the score was close the violinist was playing away but turned round to watch the game and never missed a beat.

The Music

The Game

The next visit was from Ariel our daughter. The visit was great and way too short. I as usual had to have things planned to do. All 3 of us took kayaking lessons the first weekend. We wore wet suits as we were in the San Francisco Bay where the water temperature is 57 degrees. We learned the basic  paddling strokes and then how to fall out (easy) and get back in (hard!).

We also did a walking our of San Francisco through Meetup . We walked up and down hill and all the way to Twin Peaks near Sutro tower. It lasted over 4 hours and was great fun (and good exercise).

Lesley, Hartley and Ariel on top of Twin Peaks

The next great adventure was to go to the South Fork of the American River and go white water rafting. It was a beautiful warm (hot) day and the river was a perfect temperature to swim in (good thing). I don’t think any of us fell out  but we sure got plenty wet. There was one rapid where you could run the rapid without any boat so I did that , great fun. Also we got to jump off a cliff into the water. Very scary as I was always taught not to do that, but this was “sanctioned”  so I jumped and made it (everyone else did too).

White water rafting on the South Fork of the American River

Next my good friend Jacque came to visit. All 4 of us were here for a few days and had a great time. We went to  see the classic production of Beach Blanket Babylon and had dinner in the city. Hartley and Ariel drove our car back to Phoenix where it awaits the end of the lease in October. So now we are officially carless. While they were gone over the weekend Jacque and I had a great time exploring San Francisco. It was her birthday so we used that as a good excuse just to have fun. We went on a tour of the city with Emperor Norton

Jacque, Emperor Norton and Lesley if San Francisco

which was tons of fun , followed by  late lunch in a French restaurant, my favorite thing. Because it was Jacque’s birthday it gave us  great excuse to have dessert, noisette ice cream for me, mmmmm.

Jacque worked like crazy on Sunday making covers for the pillows on the boat (great to have a seamstress for  friend!)

Hartley trying out the new pillow

and I went out to look at kayaks and bought a beautiful red one.

My new Kayak

Me in my new kayak

All good things come to and end , so Jacque left on Monday.  The same day, June 29, Hartley came home and on July 1 we left for the Delta.

The Delta is an area northeast of San Francisco Bay where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers meander through the farm lands before reaching the Bay. Because it is inland, away from the ocean breezes the temperature is much hotter than the Bay. The water is warm and freshwater as opposed to salt and very nice to swim in.

Rob is our neighbor at the marina in Emeryville and  has grown up in the Delta. He told us where there was  a great place to anchor so we went up July 1 an secured a spot.  He and his girlfriend Cindy came up the next day on his motorboat. There we swam and kayaked and generally enjoyed being in the warm. This was not an isolated island experience. There were boats all around. I was very impressed though that all the boats near us were considerate ( keeping the speed down so wakes did not rock the boats too much, not drunk and loud and quit the music at a reasonable hour.

Our Neighbors on the Delta for the Fourth of July weekend

On July 4th we watched a wonderful fireworks display put on by the Hilton’s. They have an old lodge up there and have had a fireworks display for many years. Thousands of boats come up to enjoy the weather and the fireworks.

Atsa and Built for Comfort in the Delta

A few days later we worked our way back to Emeryville where we have just stocked up on groceries etc and if the weather is good as predicted will head north. We have an open ended plan. If the weather is good and we feel like it we will head north and maybe make it to the San Juan islands, Vancouver Island area. If we get tired of the fog and fighting the current and the wind we might turn around and head south. The boat is all ready for the trip with kayaks stowed and bicycles secured, we are ready to see what the future holds. Off in the AM (probably).

Oh, I forgot to tell you we got a new spinnaker. Looks like the AZ flag

For those of you who have followed stories of my Mom , she ran in the National Senior Games on July 6 in St Paul in the pouring rain , in the 85-89 year old group, 5 K. She is 88 and came in 3rd. Congrats Mom. (No pictures yet , hope to have the soon.)

Whew. Time to go to bed Leaving in the AM for wherever.

Scotland is like coming home. My parents  were born ,  raised and married in Scotland before they immigrated to the United States in 1948. Having Scottish parents  gave me a great advantage, as   having grown up listening to a Scottish  accent I had little trouble understanding the locals with their strong brogues.

We flew from Dublin to Edinburgh where we picked up our next car, a standard drive this time. (I had to keep upping the ante when it came  to driving 🙂 From there we went to Cupar to spend some time with friends of my Mom’s whom she knew from when she did Scottish country dancing in Connecticut. They live in a 200 year old house that they have remodeled and it is gorgeous. Ken and Sandra were most gracious hosts and did a lovely job of showing us the sites of  Cupar and its surrounds. The area is full of quaint little harbors with their own fishing fleets.

A quaint little harbor

We also visited St Andrew’s , the home of golf, and  where Prince William and Kate  met and  went to school.   St Andrew’s cathedral  (the remains) is there too. Its construction was started in the 1100’s. Johns Knox preached from the pulpit in 1559.

Mom and I at St Andrew’s cathedral

Cute sign , couldn’t resist. (Wynd is Scottish for a narrow wee street)

One of many great town names

When it comes to renewable power the ingenuity of hundreds of years ago is incredible. This is the remains of a mill that was powered by the ocean waves.

An old concept that is being revived again. The power of the waves.

My Mom and our hosts in their garden

Oh and I almost forgot to tell about the dancing. On Friday morning Sandra took us to her dancing group where we learned to do circle dancing. It was lots of fun dancing with a group of local women and being welcomed to the group. Of course for refreshments fresh brewed tea was served a long with shortbread, what a treat.

After two wonderful days in Cupar we drove to Thurso. Thurso is on the northern coast of mainland Scotland. The coast line is very rugged and beautiful.

Having fun on the coast at Thurso

We visited John O’Groats, the most northern point in main land Scotland.

John O’Groats

The rugged area of Duncansby Head

After exploring northern main land Scotland we decided to drive to the Isle of Skye. We had traveled up the east coast and so it seemed best to cut across to the west coast (the map showed roads after all.) Well we found out what the “yellow” colored roads on the map mean that the roads are one lane  i.e one period , if a a car comes from the other direction someone has to find a way to pull over and let the other by,  and also full of curves and ups and downs (5 hours worth!!!). It was quite a driving experience, stick shift and all.  On the Isle of Skye we visited Dunvegan castle and heard the story of the fairy flag which still holds one more wish to help protect the Macleod clan whose family seat is at Dunvegan.

Dunvegan Castle

The garden at Dunvegan Castle (in the pouring rain)

After the Isle of Skye we stopped at Fort William and then drove through the dramatic scenery of Glencoe where the massacre of the MacDonalds by the Campbells occurred in 1692 . The area is deep  green in color with brooding clouds hanging on the mountain tops and the mountain sides are covered in roaring streams, an eerie scene.

The brooding mountains.

Me to prove I was there

Innumerable gushing streams

On we drove to the Kilmarnock area which is on the west coast 20 miles south of Glasgow. This is family country. We stayed with my cousin and his wife who welcomed us with tea (and whiskey) . They took us sightseeing and shared family stories  and made us feel at home. We visited as many of the relatives as we could ( including a distant relative through my Dad’s side, Robert McCosh. His son got married the week after we left and he,Stefan and his new wife, Ashley were able to visit us at the boat  on their honeymoon earlier this week!)

The electric brae is an optical illusion. You can stop your car here, in the middle of the road and watch it roll up hill.

Culzean Castle

The grounds at Culzean with my  cousin Tom, his wife and Mom

The flowers at Culzean

Mom and I at the end of this incredible trip

Well I have been out of the country for awhile and my posts therefore  have been lacking. Now I will have to update you on what has been going on.

My first accomplishment was to finally get my HAM radio license. Hartley has been an amateur radio operator since he was about 16 and has always encouraged me to get my license (but you had to learn Morse Code and I wasn’t interested.) Now you can do it without the code!! It is very helpful to have a license when you are sailing as in the anchorages that is how the various cruisers communicate. My new license is KK6TPE. The best part of getting the license was that the test site was at a GOOGLE facility. If you have seen the movie “The Internship” it looks just like that! There are colored bicycles and rooms with climbing walls and rooms for dance , a bowling alley etc. ! They even had padded, HEATED, toilet seats complete with a warm water bidet ( which you could chose to have spray the back or the front!!!!)

After the testing for my license on Saturday, I left on vacation to Ireland and Scotland with my Mom on Monday.  She is 88 and in great shape so we had a wonderful time visiting lots of interesting places.

The first challenge was driving on the left side of the road.  I must say I did pretty well staying on the correct side of the street. My biggest mistake was when I was in a parking lot (no middle line) and I drove down the wrong side, not too bad. Another challenge with driving are the round-abouts (traffic circles). It is a trick knowing when it is your to enter the round-about and if you are leaving at the 3rd exit should you be driving on the inner ring or the outer and when  you should  change. The navigation systems in the car was essential but sometimes added to the confusion at the round-abouts as it would say to get off at the 2nd exit but wouldn’t count  an exit that was really small or was a deadend. I only ended going round and round a couple of times. The first time it happened I went around 4x because after the first time around  Mom and I were laughing so hard we couldn’t concentrate to figure out where we needed to go.

Okay, now for a brief travelog.

We arrived in Dublin and spent two days there viewing the city sites. Here is a picture of me and the famous Molly Malone (selling cockles and mussels alive alive oh.)****

From there we drove to Kilkenny and went to a bar for some great traditional Irish music. As you will see there were lots of castles so here are some pictures of the first one with the castle and beautiful gardens. The castle of Kilkenny.

My Mom at Kilkenny Castle

My Mom in the gardens at Kilkenny Castle

From there we went off to Killarney, the step off point to the the beautifully scenic drives, the Loop of Kerry and the Ring of Dingle.

Turkey and horse in beautiful Killarney National Park

For the Loop of Kerry I decided to give the driving a break  and we took a bus tour. We got to see a sheep dog demonstration. Truly amazing. The dogs with just simple voice commands or whistles would herd the sheep and make them do whatever the sheep herder wanted with out any obvious effort.

The shepherd and his dog

The weather was dramatic with rain and sun and rain and sun (and some hail too.)

Killarney National Park

I had to take a picture of a harbor in Dingle.

Dingle Harbor

From there it was off to the Cliffs of Mohr ,after taking a trip on the ferry across the Shannon River (more on ferries later).

Cliffs of Mohr

From there it was on to Dromoland Castle where we stayed for the night and got treated like royalty.

At THE Castle

Lifting your hand to pour some more wine was not allowed!! The waiter was at your service and it was his job to do that little thing for you!

The chandelier in our room.

After a night of luxury we headed back to Dublin to catch our plane to Scotland. On the way we stopped at the Irish National Stud Farm and saw some beautiful horses and 3  new foals born the night before.

A very expensive horse

More later but I am getting complaints that I haven’t posted since I got back so here is the first installment.